METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT A CALL RECIPIENT AT A USER DEVICE

• US 20130072172A1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: CHANG, Ilku, RHEE, Youngho, JANG, Youngshil, JIN, Youngkyu
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/417
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2044 Group features, e.g. closed user group
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2094 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/541 based on information specified by the calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]

Abstract

A method and apparatus are to provide status information about a call recipient and information about other users located in a same area as the call recipient. A method for providing information about the call recipient by a user device includes initiating a call transmission to the call recipient; receiving forwarding information corresponding to the call transmission; and outputting information about the call recipient and information about users located in a same area as the call recipient, based on the forwarding information.

Claims

1. A method for providing information about a call recipient by a calling user device, the method comprising:

initiating a call transmission to the call recipient;

receiving forwarding information corresponding to the call transmission; and

outputting information about the call recipient and information about users located in a same area as the call recipient, based on the forwarding information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forwarding the information includes device information about the users existing in the same area as the call recipient and status information related to the device information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a call transmission a user device selected from the output information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the information about the call recipient and the information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient comprises:

constructing a user interface using the forwarding information; and

outputting the information about the call recipient and the information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient through the user interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein outputting the information about the call recipient and the information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient includes outputting status information about the call recipient and device information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein constructing the user interface comprises:

displaying device information related to the call recipient and status information about the call recipient in a first information region of the user interface; and

displaying the device information and status information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient in a second information region of the user interface.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a call switch command to call one of the users located in the same area as the call recipient based on the device information and status information about the users located in the same area as the call recipient displayed in the second information region of the user interface; and

initiating a call transmission to the one of the users located in the same area as the call recipient, based on the call switch command.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising reconstructing the first and second information regions of the user interface, based on the call switch event.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first and second information regions of the user interface comprises:

moving the device information and the status information in the first information region to the second information region; and

moving the device information and the status information corresponding to the one of the users located in the same area as the call recipient in the second information region to the first information region.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

stopping the call transmission to the call recipient, when the user interface is output or when the call switch command is received.

11. A method for providing, by a call recipient user device, information about a call recipient and users existing in a same area as the call recipient, the method comprising:

receiving a call transmission request from a call sender;

acquiring forwarding information including device information about users existing in a same area as the call recipient and status information related to the device information;

generating a call response message based on the forwarding information; and

transmitting the call response message to the call sender.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting a safety mode event; and

activating a safety mode corresponding to the safety mode event.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating the call response message comprises inserting an identifier into a header field and inserting the forwarding information into a data field,

wherein the identifier indicates that the call response message is for call forwarding in the safety mode.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the call response message comprises:

identifying device information for users having a relationship to the call sender from among the device information included in the forwarding information; and

inserting the device information for the users having the relationship to the call sender into the call response message, while omitting device information for users having no relationship to the call sender from among the device information included in the forwarding information.

15. A system for providing information about a call recipient, the system comprising:

a transmitting device that transmits a call request;

a called device that receives the call request from the transmitting device and transmits forwarding information to the transmitting device in response to the call request;

a fellow device that is located in a same area as the called device; and

a vehicle management system that generates the forwarding information based on device information about the called device and the fellow device, and generates status information for the device information,

wherein the transmitting device receives the forwarding information from the called device, and displays a user interface based on the forwarding information.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the user interface displays the device information and the status information related to the called device in a first information region, and displays the device information and the status information related to the fellow device in a second information region.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the transmitting device transmits a call request to the fellow device in response to a call switch event selected in the second information region, and reconstructs the user interface by moving the device information and the status information related to the called device in the first information region to the second information region and by moving the device information and the status information related to the fellow device in the second information region to the first information region.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the transmitting device and the called device includes:

a communication unit;

a display unit; and

a control unit that controls a call transmitting function and a call receiving function.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the control unit of the transmitting device generates a call connection message, controls the communication unit to transmit the call connection message to the called device, controls the display unit to display the user interface when the call response message is received from the called device, and controls the communication unit to perform a call transmission process based on information about a call switch target.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the control unit of the called device controls the communication unit to transmit device information to the vehicle management system when connected to the vehicle management system, acquires the forwarding information from the vehicle management system, generates a call response message including the forwarding information, and controls the communication unit to transmit the call response message to the transmitting device.